Undisclosed spent an entire episode talking about examples of key witnesses in murder cases who completely made up stories. Like, completely, with no link to the cases.

Several of these examples involved the same Baltimore detectives who worked Adnan's case.

Honestly, some of the stuff they pulled - and got away with - was incredible. They deliberately (proven) got Adnan's date of birth wrong by a year on a charge sheet, which meant he would have been 18 at the time of the crime, which meant they could wave the threat of the death penalty on front of his nose to get him to confess. This error somehow stuck, which meant the judge at an early hearing denied him bail because you can't have bail in a capital punishment case

Slayerx wrote:Hooked on Undisclosed listened to about 10 episodes so far.

Yeah, it's great. Even now the case has moved on, it's good to have your mind blown re how messed up the criminal justice system is.

I listed to their latest one, since the new decision on Adnan, and it's crazy. There's a bit at the start when they play the voicemail that Rabia left for someone else, and I was crying right along with her.

I can't help but feel that the production team had no idea why Season 1 was such a success. I'll give them a clue: THERE WAS A MYSTERY, DAMMIT. Season 2 failed because there was no mystery. It was an interesting story, but there turned out to be no hook.

On the face of it, it looked like there would be a mystery to solve, especially since it was a relatively new story but as it played out it became clear that they werent going to get to the bottom of why exactly he walked off and it turned into an audiobook of the events. I got to the end of it but I didnt look forward to each new episode in the same way I did with season 1.

On a related note, I'm really struggling with the second series of Undisclosed, too. They have got a mystery, and a great miscarriage of justice hook, but they really can't tell a story.

The Adnan story/investigation arc worked so well: Serial told the story, Undisclosed followed up with all the nerdy legal detail, but it was accessible because you understood the story already.

Now, though, Undisclosed is trying to tell the story and dive into the detail simultaneously, and it's not quite clicking. I'm sticking with it, though, because it's genuinely a fascinating case in which, like Adnan, a guy appears to have been sent down with absolutely no evidence whatsoever.

S-Town is a new podcast from Serial and This American Life, hosted by Brian Reed, about a man named John who despises his Alabama town and decides to do something about it. He asks Brian to investigate the son of a wealthy family who’s allegedly been bragging that he got away with murder. But then someone else ends up dead, and the search for the truth leads to a nasty feud, a hunt for hidden treasure, and an unearthing of the mysteries of one man’s life.

Brian, a longtime This American Life producer, started reporting this story more than three years ago, when he got an email from John with the subject line “John B McLemore lives in Shittown Alabama.”

S-Town is part of Serial Productions, a production company from Serial and This American Life.

Onto the last ep of S-town. It's not quite as gripping as Serial season 1, but is way, way beyond season 2. Again, it understands that the key appeal of Serial was the mystery.

I've been talking a lot about Serial with some friends and it really is stunning how badly they dropped the ball on Season 2. I haven't met or heard of a single person who actually liked it, and almost no-one made it to the end. It's completely devoid of any drive or narrative, consisting instead of some random musings about the effect of war on various groups without reaching or even aiming for any type of statement. On anything.